At my house, our summers have of late tended to turn into extended Michael J Fox marathons; last summer it was Family Ties on Netflix, and this summer is shaping up to be the summer of his obscure comedies. My mom knows we love MJF, so while grocery shopping, she picked up a four-movie DVD she found on a clearance rack, and one of the movies happened to be The Hard Way. I only watched it because my little sister asked me to, and I even brought my phone in the room in case I got bored (because that's what happened when she made me watch Midnight Madness, another little-known Fox film, his first role, actually). However, I never picked up my phone once! The film started out strong, with our first glimpse at the "party crasher," played with manic and slightly terrifying believability by Stephen Lang, and a joke involving Shakespeare plays that immediately got me hooked. Stephen Lang wasn't the only good actor in this movie; surprisingly, the whole thing was earnestly acted and nobody really bordered on cheesy, like they do in most bad comedies from that era. Michael J Fox was endearing- as usual- as the naive movie star shadowing a cop for a role, and even when he had emotionally difficult scenes, he never came off as cheesy (like he occasionally did in Family Ties). And James Woods was especially great as the love-stricken, NYPD cop. I'm usually very picky when it comes to movies- especially comedies- but I enjoyed this. If you're a Fox fan, definitely don't miss it!

The Hard Way is set in New York where detective John Moss (James Woods) is on the case of a ruthless killer nicknamed the Party Crasher (Stephen Lang) who taunts police as shoots people dead, he phones the police & invites them to watch as he kills people. While chasing the Party Crasher detective Moss is injured & his boss Captain Brix (Delroy Lindo) takes him off the case in order to babysit rich Hollywood action film star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) who is researching a role as a cop poses as Moss' new partner, Moss is horrified at having Lang follow him around as he won't let the Party Crasher case go & drags Lang into it...Directed by John Badham this action comedy thriller is the second Badham flick I have seen in the space of twenty four hours, I didn't plan it that way but the other was Blue Thunder (1983) & having watched both for the first time I am struck that while they are both decent enough action thrillers neither are particularly great & both feel rather routine. Here in The Hard Way we have the whole mismatched cop partners scenario with average results, a popular but over-crowed genre at the time there are better examples that spring to mind such as Lethal Weapon (1987), Red Heat (1988) & Tango & Cash (1989) to name but three. The difference fans of the film will point to is that Lang is an action film star but for all intents & purposes The Hard Way plays out like a straight cop thriller with little in the way of depth. The two main character's of Moss & Lang are great & equally great performances by Woods & Fox carry the lightweight script & it's them who make this as watchable as it is, the interplay between the two is funny at times & the gradual warming of the character's towards each other works pretty well. However beyond a spirited couple of leads The Hard Way is routine & clichéd, there's the grumpy police captain, the bad guy with a personal vendetta against the hero, the veteran cop & his rookie partner, a love interest & a final confrontation to the death. The Hard Way is also very predictable in the way it unfolds, at over 110 minutes it's maybe a little long, Moss or any other NYPD cop doesn't seem to do any real police-work other than what he wants & the Party Crasher is given virtually no background or motivation other than the excuse he was killing criminals which gets explored with all of one line of dialogue.There are some funny moments here for sure but maybe not quite enough, Moss screeching through New York shouting profanity as everyone around him or the one to one in a bar with Lang where he pretends to be Moss' girlfriend is also a highlight but beyond the energy & goodwill brought to the film by the two leads (both character's & actor's) there's just not that much here as any sort of plot takes a back seat. While not particularly violent The Hard Way is full of profanity so if you have sensitive ears in that regard be prepared. The action is pretty good but there's not enough of it, there's a couple of car chases & stunts, an explosion at a petrol pump & the final confrontation above Times Square in New York which looks impressive but lacks excitement. Apparently James Woods had his own hairdresser on set at a cost of $6000 a week.Flopping at the box-office I would suggest the buddy buddy cop film had lost it's appeal somewhat & The Hard Way is a fairly routine example anyway. This has that big budget Hollywood look about it & looks nice enough. The acting by the two leads is great with the always excellent James Woods taking first prize, Fox is very good too while rapper LL Cool J has a small role as a cop.The Hard Way is a standard mismatched cop action thriller that is made watchable by great performances by it's leading actor's & some pretty funny moments & one-liners but story-wise this is less than average & there's certainly not enough plot here to fill 110 minutes.

Very entertaining movie, M.J. Fox is great, very good actor, he makes the movie very funny and sympathetic. Also a good scenario for a comedy movie but there are also lots of action scenes and some good quotes that makes you laugh. There is only one scene that annoying is the one M.J. Fox act as Wood's girlfriend and wants from him to say something. Wood's acting was terrible in here and time passed very slow for me but in the other parts of the movie he was good enough. Final of the movie was also very good and thrilling. I gave seven out of ten.

There is this hypomanic impatient fearless New York cop (James Woods, who else?) in pursuit of a serial killer known as The Party Crasher. Then there is this terribly wealthy, effete, spoiled Hollywood actor (Michael J. Fox) who's been churning out serial Nick Lang action movies, each followed by a Roman numeral.Fox happens to spot Woods' bloodied face on TV news and decides he wants to bunk with Woods, live Woods' life with him, do his job with him. He adores Woods as "the real thing". What he learns from Woods will be incorporated into the Nick Lang movies to lend them more verisimilitude.Basically, that's it. You could sit back for an hour or two and dream up most of the funny exchanges and ridiculous events. (It's a comedy.) The wisecracks are endless. A lot of the humor depends on insults aimed at Fox. He's called -- let me think, I have to be careful here -- a cheeseball, a maggot, a Dickless Tracy, and other things, some of them so shocking that no respectable viewer could possibly comprehend them.After a battle with a gang, Fox stops in his tracks, feels his eye, and remarks anxiously, "I think I lost a contact out there." I don't know how many mismatched cop movies you've seen, but I'll mention in passing all of the Dirty Harry movies, all of the Lethal Weapon movies, "Dragnet," one with Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt the name of which I forget, all of the Stakeout movies. One of them, "Foster and Laurie", is pretty good. At one point we get a brief trailer for a Nick Lang movie which parodies the cop movie genre. This entire movie is like that parody.What audience is it aimed at? Well, it starts off in the first scene with a car speeding through the streets of New York, banging into other vehicles, James Woods behind the wheel, screaming obscenities, gesticulating wildly, and doing odd topological things with his face -- because he's late for a date. The speeding car, however, leads directly to a shoot out in a crowded nightclub. The bodies fall in slow motion.If that opening grabs you, then this may be your movie.